Google Doodle Pays Tribute to Nelson Mandela on His 96th Birthday

Nelson Mandela, the South African freedom fighter who spent 27 years in prison for opposing the racist apartheid system, will remain our hero forever. The birth of Nelson Mendela 96 years ago today has been celebrated by search engine Google, with an interactive Doodle.

Users of the site can click through a number of his most well-known quotes. Others to feature on Google's doodle in the past include Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso and Michael Jackson.

Basically, the Google doodle shows the village where Mandela grew up, and follows his journey through his resurgence as the first black president of South Africa in 1994.

Mandela was a prominent international figure for more than half a century, first as a leading human rights campaigner in South Africa. In 1994, he became the first president of a democratic South Africa.

Mandela was born in 1918, the son of a tribal leader, in a remote village in South Africa.

In 1952, he emerged onto the national stage when he helped organize the first country-wide protests called the Defiance Campaign. That same year he opened the country's first black law firm.

Last year, the first president of a democratic South Africa, passed away at his home in Johannesburg after a prolonged lung infection. He was 95.